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Maribell Cobalstant
Maribell Cobalstant (née Parsons) is a Gilnean soldier and the last of the House of Cobalstant. Having worked alongside the Blades of Greymane and the Duchy of the Ashen Coast faithfully, she has served in a number of positions during her time. Initially the trusted charge of Lady Lilurah Lockewood, Maribell was elevated into knighthood and eventually made regent of the region during Lilurah's disappearance. In time, Maribell was elevated into regent of The Reach as well, before resigning and taking a leave of absence. Upon return, Maribell resumed her position as a Grey Knight of the Blades until being finally moved into the position of Warden of Graston, the chief lieutenant of the High Commmander. Maribell served as the Warden of Graston, leading the Blades as needed from Cobal's Hold. She was found to have been a bastard from the line of Cobalstants and was later legitimized, reviving the house. In exchange, she forfeited all Cobalstant claims in the Duchy aside from Graston and was made a full peer. She later gave up these titles after seeking atonement for sins she'd committed while holding them. History Maribell was born to two farmers on the outskirts of The Bull within Ardeiria. It was not so obvious at the time that the man assumed to be her father was in fact in no way related to her. Her mother had had a very brief affair with a man of the House of Cobalstant travelling through Ardeiria, which resulted in Maribell's conception. Considering the couple had been trying for a child previously, her 'father' simply assumed that they had finally been successful. Her father had been hopeful that she would be born a boy, so that she could both carry on their family name and so that she would, to him, actually be useful in the fields. He scorned his daughter for having been born a girl, though he decided to simply raise her as if she were a boy. She was dressed like one, made to do the chores of one around the farm, and occasionally even referred to as one by her father. As she grew, her father began to take note that she looked nothing like him. She had some of her mother's features, but not a single trait from his side of the family. He began to grow suspicious and into an angry, bitter man. He took out these feelings on Maribell, often deciding to beat her for even minor mistakes. Despite his feelings, he continued to raise her as if she were his son. As she grew into her teen years, her father began to demand more of her. He began to teach her the most basic skills needed to wield a sword, using a rusty old sword passed down through his family for at least five generations. Her situation and relationship with her father only began to worsen as she grew. All of the work on the farm brought her to grow into a strong, muscular looking woman. Her shoulders ended up broader than most women, and her hands became rough and calloused from wielding both a scythe and a sword. When she grew into her seventeenth year, her father's mood toward her began to deteriorate quickly. Only a few weeks after she had turned seventeen, her father tried to beat her once again. This time, though, she fought back. Given that he was an aging and drunken man, she was able to knock him out and flee from her home. She first fled north, making her way up to the capital city. She took various odd jobs on the way to keep herself alive. Upon her arrival in Gilneas City, she immediately enlisted within the King's army. She showed talent in combat, quickly making her way through the ranks until she was made a Sergeant. Maribell served her King loyally through both the Northgate rebellion and the Forsaken invasion. Following Gilneas' reintroduction into the Alliance, she served abroad in fighting both the Horde and the newly found Twilight's Hammer threat. Upon her return to Gilneas, she decided to lend herself to the reconquest of her fatherland. She eventually joined up with the Blades of Greymane, first serving as a simple footman. She quickly gained the trust of the then Viscountess Lilurah Lockewood and the pair became fast friends. They seemed to be inseparable at the time, and Maribell's feelings for her liege Lady began to change from friendship to those of a more romantic nature. For her service to the Blades and Lilurah, Berenal knighted her and she took up the title of Dame. They grew closer and closer, though it was not meant to be. Upon Derrik being found and elevated, both Maribell and presumably Lilurah grew fearful that, as the only two women in the Reach of any amount of standing, one of them would be pushed into a political marriage with the new Lord of the Reach. Both women very soon after found men to be with in order to, at least certainly in Maribell's case at the start, avoid such a thing. Maribell continued to serve Lilurah loyally as the latter woman was made Derrik's regent. She defended The Oak and broke the siege of Oakwood during the First Range Rebellion, earning her the title 'the Siegebreaker.' Though at first she only pursued Lucian Derintyn to avoid the possibility of a political marriage, she slowly began to care for Luke - or perhaps, at the least, to feel bad for using him in that way. During her time with Luke, Lilurah just disappeared one day. After about a month of her being missing, Maribell was asked to take up her position of Regent of the Reach. Begrudgingly, Maribell accepted the title until one more suited for the job than her was found. Once she felt that enough Lord's had been returned to their lands for Berenal to pick someone who, to her, would do the job properly given that they actually knew something of politics, Maribell stepped down. This would come to be one of her biggest regrets, given that the then Lord Lerren Dayne took up the position in her place. Maribell did not dislike Lerren at the start, as she knew nothing of him. When his first decree, within hours of his being made Regent, was to remove Lilurah from any sort of power, she began to already dislike him. When his methods used against his enemies were shown to be as brutal as they were, she grew to despise him and took to calling him 'The Butcher.' After her stepping down, Maribell withdrew from the public eye to be with her then husband. She did not believe, at the time, that she, as an upraised peasant, should be in charge of much of anything. During this time, she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter - Erika Derintyn. Upon giving birth to her child, she left again to serve her kingdom and took up the mantle of a Grey Knight within the Blades. Soon after, she was made Warden of Graston, Lieutenant under only the High Commander. While she was not yet comfortable with command as a noble, she was entirely confident as a military commander. During the Blightlands campaign, she was among those that fought for the Duchy. She was not among the inner circle during the campaign, and instead led the common soldiers around the area. Soon after the Blightlands campaign, she lent her aid to Highlord Cedrec Delcarn of the Onyx Knights in his march on the Dreadpass. She finally took to the front lines again, figting the Forsaken and defending her allies to the best of her ability. While she began to question her place in the world here, she would have no reason to do so actively until later. Just preceding the Blades sailing for Havre to pursue the Bloodwrought, an attack on Maribell's holdings in Graston and, more precisely, Cobal's Hold would provide the catalyst for such a march. Cultists attacked the Hold from within, slaughtering many of the citizens. Maribell and some allies arrived in time to save the town from further destruction, but as they went inside they were met with a gruesome sight - one that would haunt Maribell: Within the room she and her family made residence in, they found her husband bloodied but breathing and her daughter's cradle splattered with blood and full of punctures. She had not the courage to look inside at first, though just from its appearance it was obvious what happened. Just before they sailed for Havre, Maribell and her now ex-husband went through a divorce. They remain friends, though Maribell announced to him that she did not feel she could remain with a man. It was also in this time that she met - and began courting - Lady Vaerina Caer. Maribell, despite the brutal murder of her daughter, managed to mostly pull through and to continue to fight - for once not for her kingdom, but for her own personal vengeance. On Havre, she had command of the Blades forces while Berenal led those forces of the inner circle. When the others were frozen, she had been in Greywall the entire time. She turned to the Light during this time, her conversion helping her both to overcome the grief of losing her daughter and very soon after seemingly losing all of her friends. She prayed night and day for them to return, and her prayers were finally answered when they did. Following her friends returning from their frozen state, she began to take on the role of a healer so that she would not lose them again. When they were all captured by Otto Gormenstein, she very quickly volunteered to be sacrificed so that her fellows might live. Though it was quite clearly due only to the disruption of the ritual that she was brought back, she saw her renewal as a miracle of the Light and only grew more fervent from it. Soon after the campaign against the Bloodwrought, she formally announced her courtship to Lady Caer. Though the two had already been together for months, the public only see them as having been together since the triumvirate after the return from Havre. Following their return, she found a loyal dwarf in Nulric Ironcrag. She allowed him to settle a town of dwarves that he named Dun Boldihr, and he became her sworn knight and volunteer guardian. (read: purse dwarf) Shortly after their return from Silverpine and fighting the Bloodwrought, Maribell came upon disturbing things within the storerooms beneath Cobal's Hold. A painting and a journal of a long dead Cobalstant were found. These were fairly commonly found in Graston, though this one was quite different. The man in the painting had an uncanny resemblance to Maribell, and within his journal she found details pointing toward him having been near where she grew up right around where she grew up. Almost immediately after finding these things, she called for Berenal as she had no idea what to do about her discoveries. Upon his own review, he found them to be cousins due to her bastard Cobalstant blood. He legitimized her as the rightful head of the House of Cobalstant, changing her title of Warden and Viscountess of Graston from a life-peerage to a hereditary one. She discarded her name of Parsons in favor of that of Cobalstant. Immediately after finding out her heritage, she came to find the opinions of the other nobles of the Ashen Coast disturbing. Many of those who had previously trusted her came to view her with suspicion. Those who she had made enemies with, she began to suspect of plotting to have her killed for her name. She thought that she would become just another victim of the Butcher. She was eventually forced to come to a truce with Lord Lerren Darkoak and end their feud for the good of the Ashen Coast. She begrudgingly agreed to this, though to this day suspects him of plotting against her despite his own word against such. Maribell has become engaged to Lady Vaerina Caer. Category:Gilnean Category:Human Category:Characters Category:Blades of Greymane Category:House of Cobalstant